This review originally appeared on Goodreads on November 7, 2016.

The World Without Us

By Alan Weisman – Thomas Dunne Books – July 10, 2007

Review by Robin Marx

This intriguing book attempts to elaborate on the various ways Earth would be impacted if humankind were to suddenly vanish. The results of this thought experiment are a mixed bag, with some of the environmental damage and visible impact caused by humans fading relatively quickly, while other results of humanity's reign (particularly consequences associated with nuclear waste) having repercussions lasting for geological epochs. The end result is a planet that is not necessarily better or worse off for the lack of human habitation, but one very different from its current state.

Given the vast scope of the topic, the book feels necessarily a bit unfocused. Most chapters introduce a general question (“What happens to X without humans around?”), then the story's “lens” progressively zooms in on narrower details within that topic, going from macro scale to micro. Scientists, conservationists, architects, energy industry professionals, and so forth are introduced along the way, providing insight into their fields of expertise. I especially appreciated that alternate views were often provided, adding nuance when one expert's perspective veered too far towards rosy optimism or unvarnished pessimism.

By positing a scenario in which humans are completely absent the author encourages us to reflect upon humanity's current stewardship of the world. We're reminded that monumental structures and other proud feats of engineering may not be as permanent as they seem, while other more subtle byproducts of humanity's influence can have long-reaching, unintended, and permanent consequences.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 24, 2012.

Free: The Future of a Radical Price

By Chris Anderson – Grand Central Publishing – June 22, 2009

Review by Robin Marx

“Business books are basically romance novels for men. Silly fantasies, terrible writing, large type, cheap paper and one good idea per book.” – @BenedictEvans @Twitter.com

It's becoming clear that freemium business models cannot be ignored, and this book heralds those models as the way of the future. For digital content in particular, Anderson argues that the march to free is inevitable. While laudably detailed in some respects, this book is disappointingly glib and superficial in others.

Anderson unleashes a veritable deluge of cases in which free services or content can play a role in a successful business, but while he acknowledges some of the concerns held by skeptics, all too often he dismisses them out of hand without effectively rebutting them. Sheryl Crow is concerned about the increasing difficulty of selling music? Pshaw, says Anderson, you'll make it all back on live performances and merchandise sales! I'm not a particular fan of her music, but I'm willing to bet that she has a more functional knowledge of the music industry than a dude from Wired. But maybe she's just a square and not with the hip new digital economy, man.

Another concern is that many of Anderson's success stories have, in more recent years, turned out to be not so successful. He mentions Digg, which was huge for a while before becoming a shell of its former self. Facebook has had trouble providing value for shareholders. (Facebook's inability to provide a return on investment for advertisers is actually called out in the text, but subsequently glossed over.) Freemium game giant Zynga is seeing huge drops in profit. He cites Radiohead's pay-what-you-want album In Rainbows as a great success, but doesn't mentioned the fact that Radiohead abandoned this model after about three months in favor of CD sales and standard iTunes distribution. If pay-what-you-want was such an unalloyed success, why didn't the band stick with it?

The whole book is written with a wide-eyed, breathless tone that immediately puts this reader on his guard. Free is the way of the future, man, and if you don't get it you're a fossil. (Ignore the burned out husks of countless companies that were unable to turn a profit with freemium.)

Despite what this book says, I think the jury is still out on freemium. There's been a huge die-off of freemium gaming companies over the last year or so, and other companies are struggling. I suspect we're in the middle of another, more low-key, dotcom bubble. In the end, freemium will probably resume its place as just one tool of many, rather than become some dominating trend.

★★☆☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on August 23, 2013.

Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form

By Anna Anthropy – Seven Stories Press – March 20, 2012

Review by Robin Marx

I think Anna Anthropy's has done great work in spreading a sort of punk rock DIY mentality to game creation, and her articles and interviews are always a treat. I found this book to be curiously lacking in passion and depth, however. The title (and statements she's made in interviews, etc.) made me expect an inspirational manifesto, but while the book was logically structured and informative, it lacked much in the way of impact. There wasn't much about people “taking back an art form,” instead the central thesis was more like “Hey, you don't have to be a formally educated programmer to make games. Here are some tools that reduce the barrier to entry.”

The “freaks, normals, amateurs...” subtitle hinted there would be some discussion about the democratization of game development, and how marginalized people were using games as a powerful tool for self-expression, but that topic was only touched upon. One of the appendices introduces some indie games, but the discussion was fairly superficial and there wasn't much to suggest why these particular games are important beyond being made by one or two people and having an offbeat concept. Another appendix suggests tools an aspiring game designer could use to get his or her feet wet, but while interesting, this section is also disappointingly brief.

This wasn't a bad book, per se, just not as radical and impassioned as the title suggested and not as substantial as I had hoped. I'd still recommend Anna Anthropy's work to people interested in game design, but they could probably benefit just as much by saving their $15 bucks and reading some of her blog posts and interviews instead.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 2, 2012.

Context: Further Selected Essays on Productivity, Creativity, Parenting, and Politics in the 21st Century

By Cory Doctorow – Tachyon Publications – October 1, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

This is a much more balanced collection of essays than the previous volume, Content. There's still a great deal of material dealing with Doctorow's two favorite topics—the evils of Digital Rights Management software and how “Big Content” is attempting to undermine Internet culture through the abuse of copyright law—but he also mixes it up with a variety of other subjects. There are essays about his approach to writing and what tools he uses, new media versus old media, tips on raising a techno-savvy child, and a critique of the freemium business model.

Context is a more mature volume than its predecessor. When compared to Content, Doctorow seems to have developed as a writer, and his views are more well-rounded and eloquently expressed. Much like the first collection of essays, this book is pretty superfluous for a regular BoingBoing reader, but it should be a worthwhile read for the uninitiated. I recommend that the first book, Content, be skipped entirely in favor of this sequel, as Context touches upon similar topics in a less monotonous manner.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 3, 2011.

Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future

By Cory Doctorow – Tachyon Publications – September 15, 2008

Review by Robin Marx

To readers of the BoingBoing blog, Cory Doctorow needs no introduction. The contents of this book will likewise be familiar, as it covers Doctorow's favorite topics, the so-called copyfight struggle of regular folks versus overreaching intellectual property owners, the wrongheadedness of digital rights management technology, and the growing encroachment of government surveillance into everyday life. These are all important topics, and Doctorow handles them deftly. However, like Dawkins' and Hitchens' books about atheism, the people who most need to learn about these topics are also the least likely to pick this book up.

The book also suffers somewhat from a lack of variety, especially during the first half. Taken individually, they're well argued, but because most of the essays are variations of the same few themes, the compilation as a whole suffers.

In the end, it's difficult to determine who to recommend this book to. BoingBoing readers don't really need it; they can just keep reading the blog for up to date arguments on the same topics. It may be more worthwhile for people who don't know much about DRM and the conflict between intellectual property owners and Internet society, but again, I'd probably just direct them to Doctorow's work at BoingBoing instead.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on July 27, 2015.

Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division

By Peter Hook – It Books – January 29, 2013

Review by Robin Marx

This is a phenomenal look at one of the most influential and mythologized bands in modern music, written by one of its founding members.

The book is written in an immensely engaging style. Rather than go for an aloof, literary voice, Hook writes as if he's telling tall tales down at the pub. Joy Division fans will find a lot to love here; the book is packed with colorful anecdotes, including many that do a lot to humanize post-punk's pseudo-martyr figure Ian Curtis. There's so much detail about individual gigs, and the sections where he provides track-by-track commentary on Joy Division's albums were especially appreciated.

While immensely entertaining, I also got the feeling that Hooky was a bit of an unreliable narrator. Some passages—about drunken fights and pre-suicide warning signs from Ian that the band had turned a blind eye to—seemed very honest and self-reflective, but it felt like (due to the current and much-publicized acrimony between them) he minimized Bernard Sumner's contribution to the band. That was the only sour note in the book for me, everything else was pitch-perfect.

Wholeheartedly recommended to even casual Joy Division fans.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on April 17, 2021.

The Life and Tryals of the Gentleman Pirate, Major Stede Bonnet

By Jeremy R. Moss – Captain's Row Books – September 15, 2020

Review by Robin Marx

“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” (H. L. Mencken)

This biography tells the tale of one such normal man, an English plantation owner from Barbados who decides to buy a small ship, outfit it with cannons, and take to a life of piracy. The reasons for the change in vocation are absent from the historical record and unclear. The author suggests sympathies with the Jacobite rebellion or an unsatisfying home life; he leaves his wife and small children and never returns.

While it gets off to an intriguing start and the book seems effectively researched, throughout it I couldn't shake the feeling that Stede Bonnet was not a very apt selection for full length biographical treatment.

He didn't seem like a very successful pirate, for one. Because he lacked any experience with shipboard command he quickly gets critically injured in an ill-considered battle with a Spanish Man-of-war. Perhaps recognizing that Bonnet has no idea what he's doing, famed pirate Edward “Blackbeard” Thatch quickly usurps command of his ship, relegating Bonnet to a passenger on his own vessel. Bonnet remains in this situation for roughly half the book, lacking any apparent agency. He is quite literally “along for the ride.”

After he parts ways with Thatch, Bonnet does manage to take some ships and engage in some plunder, but his exploits didn't seem particularly noteworthy compared to the other pirates mentioned in passing. He is a “Gentleman Pirate” because of his breeding, not due to any particular gallantry on the high seas. He doesn't seem to have been a particularly violent pirate, but then again most historical pirates weren't as bloodthirsty as literature and Hollywood would suggest.

Towards the end of his piratical career, Bonnet halfheartedly angles for a royal pardon but continues to board and steal from passing ships. Inevitably he gets captured and put on trial, and without spoiling things too much, he does not comport himself in a particularly manly or defiant way.

I have no complaint about the book's writing, just the choice in subject. Apart from the inciting mystery (i.e., what made this man drop everything to become a pirate?), he doesn't seem to have done enough to justify a whole book written about him. There doesn't seem to be enough historical documentation to make him anything more than a cipher. It seems like he was in over his head throughout his piratical career, but without diaries or other records of his thoughts and motivations it's difficult to come away from this book with any kind of moral or other instructive lesson.

This book is brief and competently written, but I wish I had spent my time reading about a more interesting and fully documented pirate.

★★☆☆☆

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